Child Language Acquisition PLAN

CLA PLAN

Intro

                AO3 – Context, age, surroundings, relationships

                AO2 – Telegraphic/ Post telegraphic

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                Linguistic evidence of telegraphic/post telegraphic stage

·         Conjunctions/ Complex/ Compound utterances (post telegraphic)

·         Structure of what they say – simple

·         Spontaneous stage – features textually influenced by the context

·         Post telegraphic – rarely omits lexis, utterances are complete

·         Some examples of complex syntax

·         Address terms/ pronouns – post telegraphic (he/she/us/we)

·         Struggle asking questions – intonation to show that it’s a question (phonological features)

·         Turn taking (pragmatics)

·         Negatives (telegraphic) struggles to negate/ struggle with auxiliary verbs

·         Semantic ability outstrips phonological ability

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·         Virtuous errors

·         Determiners (struggle inaccurate) – here/there

·         Wug test –  Jean Berko Gleason (shows we have a LAD)

·         TENSE – suffixes

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·         Chomsky – LAD theory (Chomsky argued that children will never acquire the tools needed for processing an infinite number of sentences if the language acquisition mechanism was dependent on language input alone.)

·         Morphology – morphemes (suffixes and prefixes)

·         Demonstrate inconsistent or incorrect word order when speaking

·         Use a limited number of grammatical markers (e.g. –ing, a, the, possessive ‘s, be verbs)

·         Have difficulty understanding and using past, present and future verb tenses

·         Show limited understanding and use of plural forms

·         Struggle with story retell tasks

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·         Adult influence - Find an example of language learnt from caregiver

·         Imitation/  Reinforcement

·         Skinner – Taught how to speak

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·         Adult influence on language

·         Deb Roy – Speech home project

·         Colloquial Language/ accent dialect

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·         The forbidden experiment

·         FOX P 2

·         Lenneberg – CAP (1967) Not be able to communicate

·         This suggest that skinner and Chomsky are both right

·         Born with a LAD but no communication it does not matter

·         Speak to the child in many different contexts as possible

·         Learns more before being at school than being at school all day (Jean Berko-Gleason)

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·         Find examples about caregiver’s language in transcript

·         Convergence

·         Positively reinforcement  (repeat back )

·         Scaffolding/Repeating/False starts (Spontaneous speech)/ Reformulations

·         The caregiver uses an abundance of interrogative syntax – sets the agenda

·         The caregiver shows some examples of power  (politeness features)

·         Inclusive pronouns

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·         Focus on transcript – Lexis and Grammar

·         Relate to CLA

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·         Gender

Conclusion

·         Summarize findings – telegraphic /post telegraphic

o   Relationship/Age/Formality/Context

·         Although the study of CLA is relatively new, recent research and the identification of FOX-P-2 clearly shows Chomsky’s LAD is likely to exist, however, it needs to be stimulated for children to fully develop language. 

Misused Words Quiz

http://people.howstuffworks.com/misused-words-quiz.htm?mkcpgn=i600001332&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hswaccount

Grammar Exercises

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/index.htm

AQA English Language

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/as-and-a-level/english-language-b-2705

Horzion Documentary Notes

• Language defines you as being human (do it with ease)
• From birth language is in our lives
• Only animals who can speak
• Considered a sophisticated skill
• Deb Roy - massachutes institute of technology (Artificial intelligence - "Speech Home Project highlights")
• Moment he was born - 3 years
• Kids will use determiners - 'that'
• Stage 1: Babbling stage, Stage 2: One word = syntax, Stage 3: Two words
• Caregiver's simplify their language
• Convergence
• Caregiver's language mirrors child language
• Semantic awareness outstrips phonological ability ("Gaga" to "Water")
• 5 years old = 5,000 words
• Despite decades of research we are no closer to understanding why/how we learn to speak
• Like children, nouns seemed to be used more than verbs
• Mum's voice is the primary care giver
• L.A.D - born with language ability (Noam Chomsky - Linguistics - Nature and nurture)
• Dr Ofer Tchernichovski - forbidden experiment
• Origin of language must be in our genes
• Broken part of chromosome 7 - new gene discovered (Fox-P-2)
• Females developed language faster than males
• Language keeps the community together

A2 Summer Task

For my investigation I will study the changes in the spoken language of children, therefore I will start to gather information on Child Language Accusation.

My 5 links include;

1. http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Revision:Child_Language_Acquisition_-_Speaking#Beginnings_of_language_development

On this source, I have discovered that there are different stages to child language and how they develop in each stage. It is interesting to see how the language develops and what spoken features children use. This source will help me to identify the functions of children's language, for example Instrumental Stage is the first stage where concrete bounds are mostly used.

2. http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/lang-acq.cfm

This source gave me information about how children develop their language and how their language varies from older generations.

3. https://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/chomsky/

This is a blog that gives detail on specific child language theories. It talks about Chomsky, Crystal, Aitchison and Piaget. Also the source gives evidence to support and disprove this theory, which will be useful for me to use when investigating.

4. http://www.slideshare.net/danilavsky/vygotsky-and-language-development

This source explains about Vygotsky's theory of language; it explains to me about the theory, stating that 'words are signals.'

5. http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34:ages&catid=11:admin&Itemid=117

This source gives different age gaps and comments on the words that this age will typically say.

English Language : Investigation

INTRO (400 WORDS):
- Why I am interested
- Theories / Research
- What the theory/research leads me to expect (Hypothesis)
- Frameworks to test hypothesis

METHODOLOGY (300 WORDS):
- What kind of data
- What process did I use; comparable, reliable and ethical
- Data description table with useful names for each transcript / data

ANALYSIS (1500 WORDS - 750 EACH):
- Framework headings or key questions
- Discuss the specific significant aspects of the data PEEEE + context bringing in theories where relevant

CONCLUSION (250 WORDS):
- Were your hypothesis proven /disproven
- Summary of why findings might be the case

EVALUATION (100 WORDS):
- Demonstrate your understanding of the factors
- Impress the reader with your depth of thught, what might merit further research

APPENDICS:
- Bibliography
- Data (clean copy)
- Permission slip
- Copy of any sources that cannot easily be acquired by the reader.